Streetview: Haight-Ashbury

Brightly-painted buildings and interesting windows are one of the major draws of Haight Street, even apart from its historical significance. P.S. - look at the top left corner... Is that a ghost?! I do not EVEN know how that happened. 

The first thing I did when I hit San Francisco was head to Haight-Ashbury. It's famous for its place in history as a locus of hippie culture, the birthplace of some of the most famous music in American history. Basically, it's kind of an American Montmartre.

See, hippies practically flocked there during the summer of love. They wanted to create a community based on countercultural ideas, drugs and music. A kind of flower-child utopia."This neighborhood offered a concentrated gathering spot for hippies to create a social experiment that would soon spread throughout the nation," says wise Wikipedia, who I turn to when I have writer's block about a place.

A number of famous musicians were inspired by this place, like Janis Joplin, Jefferson Airplane and the Grateful Dead (names you'll recognize from Woodstock). 

Though its prominence faded as the hippie subculture went into decline, Haight-Ashbury still draws tourists and even helped to launch the careers of some comedians like Robin Williams and Whoopi Goldberg. If I were to travel to California soon (and I might), I would definitely see it again. It was one of my favorite parts of my trip. 

Anyway, one of the best parts is walking through and seeing the inventive window displays. I present: Haight-Ashbury. 

That window had giant legs sticking out of it. The red heels made me think of the Wicked Witch that got squashed in Wizard of Oz. Um. That might not be the reference here, though.   

This window had a lot of small, taxidermied animals in it. I'm pretty sure I was in California right after the movie "Dinner for Schmucks" came out, and that's what this reminded me of. 

P.S. - Just be careful if you wander into one of the shops. I'm pretty sure I got a contact high.